Light Blogging ...

again, alas. If you want what Third Avenue calls 'bile-filled rhetoric' - and there's no better sort - then Dumb Jon is your only man. Pub Philosopher is also recommended.

Jon notes the arrest of two police officers in London who shot a man carrying a chair-leg in a bag (they'd been told it was a shotgun). We can all feel safer that such dangerous men are off the streets - particularly when we think that their protesting collegaues may be replaced by Army marksmen.

New group blogs The Sharpener and Once More are up - I'll get them on the sidebar in God's good time.

I've just listened to an hour of the Today programme, which is obsessed (RealAudio) this morning with the Blair/Bush relationship. In the BBC world, it's a bit like George and Lennie in Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men.

George W. Bush is Lennie, simple-minded but physically powerful - Tony Blair is George, his concerned friend who tries to keep Lennie from using his strength wrongly. It all ends badly in the book, but in real life who knows ? Maybe the simple Toxic Texan can be led down the paths of righteousness by our gloriously nuanced, sophisticated leader - Gordon Brown.

And finally - Edinburgh is going to be a riot. It's likely that there'll be enough people on the streets to provide the necessary cover/distraction for the Womble types to be able to trash many a capitalist entity. As David Farrer reports, they are just waking up to this fact in Auld Reekie.


To add fuel to the flames, Geldof has now called for an armada of small boats to carry thousands of illegal immigrants (or Frenchmen - whichever is most offensive) to the UK. The good news is that the world's busiest shipping lanes should see to a fair number of them. It's going to be Slapton Sands all over again. If anyone takes any notice, that is - yachties are (generally) sensible people.